Helicopter Rescue For All Passengers Aboard Antarctic Research Ship

The BBC reports (with video) that all aboard the ice-trapped MV Akademik Shokalskiy have been rescued by helicopter, after more than one icebreaker attempt to reach the vessel directly proved too challenging. Also at the New York Times, which reports "The twin-rotored helicopter, based on a Chinese icebreaker, the Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, flew several sorties across miles of packed ice to pluck scientists, tourists and journalists from a makeshift landing zone next to the marooned MV Akademik Shokalskiy research vessel."

Re:The Antarctic successfully defends itself

[i kan reed]

Look at me, I don't understand science, and I call people doing their jobs in dangerous environments a vacation.

From a person who has never seriously done any difficult labor in their life, so much you can smell it.

Cheers for the crew!

[coder111]

While the world watches the researchers and tourists being "rescued", these guys stay to save the ship if that is at all possible. These are the guys who are doing all the work and should be getting all of the attention and respect they deserve.

--Coder

Re:But don't worry

[amorsen]

Absolutely agreed. You could pretty much replace "helicopter" with "nuclear ice breaker capable of sailing in practically any ice" and there would have been nothing for me to gripe about. Although the existing nuclear ice breakers are all in the Arctic and allegedly cannot cross the tropics under their own steam due to insufficient cooling.

Re:So what happens to the ship?

[UnknowingFool]

Only the passengers were evacuated. The crew will stay behind and sail it out once free from the ice. They have enough provisions to last months; they didn't have enough provisions for the 52 passengers.

Re:Global warming.

[oodaloop]

And your credibility dropped to zero by conflating water with pollution. Here's [panda.org] one of the first results when I googled man-made chemicals. I've previously read that there over 100,000 man-made chemicals released into the environment. If you know of a better word than chemical to use, BTW, please let me know. Here's [wikipedia.org] an overview of the current mass extinction event, started about 10,000 years ago when man really started getting down to wiping out animals, burning forrests for agriculture, etc. It's a selective list. Here's [wikipedia.org] a list of man-made extinctions, or at least the documented ones. Googling is hard, but thankfully I was here to do it for you.

Re:Maybe off topic here, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

The rescuers pay for the cost of the rescues. Rescues at sea are a no-cost agreement under maritime conventions and traditions.

Some US politicians raised questions about this practice after costly rescue operations for Carnival cruise ships last year.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/carnival-u-s-won-reimbursed-triumph-costs-article-1.1315792